As a result of Israel’s coalition democracy, the religious high court of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel has been “taken over” by haredi religious judges.

These judges are generally not “user-friendly” to would-be converts and many of them are strict constructionalists regarding the criterion of “acceptance of the commandments.” As a result, only a paltry number of these Israeli citizens have succeeded in converting over the last five years.

...David Rotem’s conversion bill could ameliorate a tragic situation for the 350,000 Israelis from the FSU, without worsening the situation for diaspora Jewry. I do not believe the objection of diaspora Jewry is fair to those Israeli citizens whose situation will only be helped by the Rotem Bill.

Rabbi Sacks is the Director of the Masorti Rabbinical Assembly in Israel

While Rabbi Riskin's words are often interesting, they too often oversimplify realities. This holds true in his recent piece "A Blessing and a Curse."

...Rav Riskin, rightly, disparages the Zealously Orthodox Rabbinate for its obfuscations. But he also sees no place for the non-Orthodox rabbis. Those to his right are too strict and those to his left lack authority. That leaves but one way - the Riskin way.

...Why Rabbi Riskin has chosen this time to, albeit in nice language, to disparage the motives the Jewish world's largest Diaspora community is beyond me.

But at least, in the name of Yosher, he should get the facts straight.

David Turner was the first director, Justice for the Pollards; created JUDAC, Jews United to Defend the Auschwitz Cemetery, 1988; past JNF Regional Director.

...Which brings us back to the “conversion law” and its significance as an issue of Zionism: Israeli secular parties are voluntary hostage to Orthodoxy for coalition creation.

And the reason is clearly that it is politically cheaper to buy religious support on the backs of our Diaspora than to compromise ideological “principles” with secular parties ideologically hardly distinguishable from themselves.

And so “Jewish identity according to Halacha” becomes an internal matter for the state without regard to its impact on our nation beyond.

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo is Dean of the David Cardozo Academy in Jerusalem.

I look forward to the moment when the Chief Rabbinate will consist of men who encourage a genuine dialogue with the secular population; when the Chief Rabbinate will respond to the people’s demands regarding Judaism’s need to produce major Jewish thinkers and highly inspiring personalities.

A time when yeshivoth will cease to be institutions of mass production in which vital issues of faith are shunned, and when running for refuge to trivial substitutes will once and for all be taboo.

The Trachtenberg committee has long-term plans for the economy, but Hareidim, who feel they are unrepresented on the panel, may reject them.

“I want to say that we Hareidim have no faith in this committee. We will not accept its plans, and we will do everything to ensure that they are not accepted by other communities,” MK Yisrael Eichler (UTJ) added.

The writer is a business executive and rabbi. He serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of Rabbis for Human Rights. Opinions expressed here are his own.

Would the rabbis of the Talmud be out on the streets – and in the tents – with the protesters? Or would they be defending the government and the status quo? I believe they would be out in the streets and parks with the demonstrators.

The largely secular protesters may not know it, but they have Torah on their side.

This is what I think Israel will need to advance the struggle for a social Zionist renewal — a tough leader who has the courage to address the totality of the country’s problems; someone who is unafraid to say and do difficult things.

...A leader unafraid to tell the Charedi sector: “Your lifestyle of learning in yeshivot and not contributing to our economy and defense is not sustainable. It is dishonoring your religion and isolating you from the rest of Israeli society. Working for a living is a Torah value. We will gradually wean you from your dependence and give you incentives to enter the work force.”

A leader unafraid to tell the Chief Rabbinate: “You cannot control people’s lives in the name of religion. Coercion turns people off from the very religion you promote. We will introduce legislation so that you will abide by the rulings of centrist, bridge-building commissions.”

According to the Keter Institute for Economy According to Torah, “economically speaking, Judaism is closer to capitalism than socialism, in that it doesn’t tend to get involved in the free market, while socially, the Torah is closer to socialism, in emphasizing the responsibility for society’s weaker members,” the document states in its introduction.

The Keter Institute has been conducting research on Torah and economics for 17 years, on issues such as conducting contracts according to Jewish law, fraud, interest, and keeping Shabbat in a modern economy.

The institute – which includes rabbis, academics and businessmen who meet on a regular basis – also publishes books on such topics, and the eighth title – about to come out – deals with insurance in the light of Halacha.

...Rabbi Yehoshua Engelman, an Anglo Israeli who was the rabbi of Yakar in the UK for several years and has been the spiritual mentor of Yakar in Tel Aviv since its inception, has done more than just talk.

...Because he is also a talented singer and guitarist, Engelman has attracted a large following of young people, who like to sing along with him and gravitate in droves to his orange tent on Nordau Boulevard on Friday afternoons for his Kabbalat Shabbat service.

He is also a member of Rabbis for Human Rights, who believes that the most positive example of solidarity is to be an active part of a movement, and not just a sympathetic onlooker.

Hartman points out that the [agunah] problem has remained unresolved because even in modern times, “the Orthodox Jewish community, broadly speaking, has coalesced around a conviction that change per se is destructive to the halakhic (legal) system, which must be preserved in the greatest extent possible” even when “moral intuition, logical argument, or observed realities serve as valid bases for critiquing inherited halakhah.”

Yisrael Briskman's wife in Israel wanted a divorce, and a rabbinical court decided she should be granted one.

But Briskman refused and fled to the United States, where the FBI says an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and his wife lured him to their New Jersey home, kidnapped him and said they'd bury him alive in the Pocono Mountains if he didn't relent.

...The situation in the United States and the modern Jewish Diaspora differs from that in Israel and the long-ago Orthodox communities of Eastern Europe because of the issue of jurisdiction.

Israel's religious courts are official legal institutions, and can impose sanctions on recalcitrant spouses, ranging from driver's license suspension to imprisonment.

Rettig Gur claims that the primary goal of the Agency’s new strategy is in determining what motivates people to make aliya – particularly for those who have comfortable lifestyles in the Diaspora.

The Agency further maintains that the reason that people choose to make aliya is the same one that drives people to undertake leadership roles within their Jewish community. This provides another insight into the Agency’s choice to combine its departments.

Joel Braunold is a Bnei Akiva alumnus and a former staff member of OneVoice Europe who is currently studying at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

….the current relationship is unhealthy for both Israel and Diaspora communities.

If, as the Hartmann Institute has intimated, a new relationship between Israel and the Diaspora is to be founded beyond that of crisis, then foreign vs. local giving needs to be part of this conversation.

An Israel that is a member of the OECD should no longer be a charity case. I want to give to Israel because I need to, not because it needs me to.

Facing an audience of 3,000 people, the 12 finalists of the 2011 Hallelujah song contest took to the stage one by one Thursday evening. They came from Jewish communities in countries all around the world, including Turkey, Russia, Costa Rica and the United States.

It's time we in religious Zionism notice a dramatic change. We are no longer a small, marginal group, nor are we pushed aside, but we occupy key positions in Israeli society.

Change in our community, the public companion, a partner in leadership, demands that we begin to consider the principles by which we make decisions about the nature of Israeli society and the State of Israel - State of the Jewish people.

Hundreds (according to the organizers) of young, and quite a few less young, answered to the call of Hitorerut representatives on the city council and came to celebrate the end of the week at the Khan Theater on Friday at noon.

That was a secular answer to the haredi threat against secular culture in Jerusalem, in response to the last haredi demonstrations against secular outdoor events, led by young leadership in the city – New Spirit and Hitorerut – who decided to fight back.

The movement of haredi men ascending to the Temple Mount continues to grow, with yet another small group of ultra-orthodox men recently touring the site, this time under the tutelage of Kiryat Arba’s Chief Rabbi Dov Lior.

The leading haredi authorities for both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi populations – Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef – have prohibited Jews from visiting the area that used to contain the Temples, and is currently under the authority of the Jordanian Waqf, which maintains the important mosques there.

Earlier this month, 200 people took to the streets of the strictly Orthodox neighbourhood of Geulah for a demonstration in favour of ascending. And a new organisation, the Charedi Association for Ascending Temple Mount, intends to start running group visits.

This is not just change, but a rare case of Charedim following religious Zionists on a halachic matter. Perhaps more remarkable is the way that this rethink is filtering down to the Charedi community. This is a grass-roots movement organised by the public and one of its aims was to start pressuring rabbis to reconsider their position.

Some people express their love for Shabbat by lighting candles, other add a synagogue prayer, a meal and songs. Some love it through dancing, and others – like the Beit Tefilah Israeli organization ("Israeli Prayer House") – love it next to the sea.

Every Friday, hundreds of people gather on a hill at the northern part of the Tel Aviv Port to welcome Shabbat. The ceremony is conducted by Esteban Gottfried, who initiated it together with some friends.

The new CD, A Tel Aviv Prayer, with the music of Beit Tefilah Israeli, conveys the experience of the Kabalat Shabbat Service at the Tel Aviv Port.

It includes original tunes to ancient and modern prayers, as well as prayers composed for Beit Tefilah by Israeli musicians Yoni Rechter and Shlomo Gronich. The lead vocalist of the Beit Tefilah ensemble is Atalya Lavi.

The Eda Haredit plans to organize groups of ultra-Orthodox men who will travel together on the tram, in order to have quorums for the afternoon and evening prayers in the back car.

"If the rabbis see the tram working and gaining momentum, they'll instruct all men to sit in the rear car only," Kroiz believes. "If some women want to sit in the back car just to spite us, we won't object."

Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox sector is preparing to set up an alternative market as part of its boycott on the veteran Mahane Yehuda Market. The City Council's haredi factions convened earlier this week in a bid to locate a suitable area for the new market.

The haredim declared war on the market, its famous Mahneyuda restaurant and street parties held in the city center throughout the summer. They were mainly enraged by the Balbasta Festival held in the market, which they said were a demonstration of immodesty and immorality.

New details about D. and his family, published here for the first time (within the limits imposed by the gag order in the case), paint a picture of a complex, unusual life, very distant from the image aroused by the allegations against him:

The man now accused of exercising absolute control over his wives and children was born to secular artists whose meeting with a charismatic Hasidic rabbi turned their world upside down.

In an alley next to the slaughterhouse stand facilities belonging to "Torah V'yirah," one of the most radical, aggressive branches of the Haredi community.

The slaughterhouse's operators also have the support of the main leadership of the Lithuanian Orthodox stream in Israel; Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who shuns meats other than poultry, lives near the slaughterhouse and supports the establishment.

The slaughterhouse is not back in full operation, since municipal officials confiscated pieces of equipment and butchers need to carry out much of their work by hand. But the intention is to purchase new equipment.

Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, said that "we are being struck by these disasters because of our sins. We lack the privilege of the Torah, which defends and saves us."

Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, one of the most prominent Lithuanian Orthodox leaders, said in response to the recent events that "the 'Bein Hazmanim' days are a dangerous period as people don't study Torah. Torah studies will lead to a calmer situation."

A new Web initiative seeking to match religious homosexuals and lesbians has sparked a row in the religious world. Although it has gained the support of a series of dignified rabbis, not everyone is pleased with the solution suggested by Rabbi Arale Harel and the Kamoha organization for Orthodox homosexuals.

"This initiative is unfair toward the children who'll be born as a result," senior Religious Zionism Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, an avid supporter conversion therapy, told Ynet.

"In order to have a healthy upbringing, a child needs parents who love each other, not parents who don't know each other."

Eli Julian, 28, is originally from Brooklyn, NY. After graduating high school in 2000 he came to Eretz Yisrael to study at Ohr David for a year. He ended up up staying for good, and learning for seven years in Yeshivas Toras Moshe. Eli lives with his wife and children in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Yerushalayim.

As a charedi soldier in the IDF, the issue [of religion in the IDF] is obviously of special interest to me. I would like to infuse the discussion with some up-to-date personal observations by sharing some of my experiences and those of my fellow charedi soldiers.

...This is only one example of a myriad of similar instances where the IDF has changed its own protocol in order to meet our Halachic needs.

But the general feeling conveyed by all this is It is clear to all of us who are chareidim that the army of today has seriously changed course regarding the religious community.

"Out of the depths I cry to you,' says the Song of Ascents in the Book of Psalms. These words will soon receive a different meaning, when a Torah scroll will be placed in Navy submarines for the first time in history.

Since the army began using submarines, no Torah scrolls have been brought in as hardly any religious soldiers served there. But the situation changed recently, after some hesder yeshiva students and even one haredi fighter joined the unit.

When Nasrin objected to her husband’s plan to have a relationship with another woman, he beat her, threatened to kick her out of the house and to take custody of their three children.

But Nasrin, a 30-year-old Muslim woman from Haifa, refused to give in. Steering clear of the traditional shari’a [Muslim law] court, she turned to the secular Family Affairs Court.

The Family Affairs Court awarded custody to Nasrin. Speaking with The Report by telephone, refusing to be identified based on her lawyer’s advice, she says simply, “It is easier to get my rights as an Israeli citizen in the civil courts than in the shari’a. The civil courts take the children’s interest into account more.”

Until a decade ago, Nasrin would not have had the option of turning to the Family Affairs Court for issues of child custody, alimony, property division and so forth.

Prior to this, Muslim women were allowed to turn solely to the shari’a court system, even though Jewish women have had the option of turning either to the rabbinic courts or the secular courts since Israel’s founding.

Last week, Muslim and Jewish soldiers gathered after a day’s training to eat a communal iftar, the traditional break-the-fast meal eaten after sunset during the month-long observance of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan.

...The IDF, which has hundreds of Muslim soldiers, primarily Bedouins, observing Ramadan, makes accommodations for them to pray and eat at the designated times, according to Ramiz.

The Jerusalem Municipality's Internet site has been attracting a great deal of traffic from the Muslim world lately, due to an online quiz on the Ramadan fast that is being sponsored by the city's Arabic Culture Department.

Israeli experts are nearing completion of an ambitious restoration of the five-century-old walls of Jerusalem, the holy city's dominant architectural feature and a unique record of its eventful and troubled history.

The Southern District Attorney's office filed on Tuesday an indictment to the BeershebaDistrict Court against Asher Dahan, the 42-year-old Elad resident suspected of murdering Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira in July.

New details in the murder indictment in the shocking murder of Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira (Baba Elazar) three weeks ago reveal another shock – the killer his the murder weapon with his tefillin [phylacteries], which contain parchments with sections of the Torah and are worn by Jews when praying on weekday morning

Blue Square is trying to bring back Orthodox Jewish customers. First, it sold the “chametz" for Passover, as required by Jewish law, in its 24-hour stores, but that gesture was largely ignored. Shefa Shuk sales sank drastically and the firm had to shut down 30 of its stores for lack of business.

The conglomerate then came up with the idea of changing the supermarket chain’s name to “Zol B’Shefa” and switched the name’s colors from green and red to black and red.

One scholar, Ariel Finkelstein, has published a comprehensive and impressive response — Derech Hamelech — that thoroughly and convincingly refutes the contentions of Torat Hamelech (the entire book Derech Hamelech is available for free download here: link).*

...He is meticulous and honest, acknowledging dissenting views but not allowing them to prevent him from advocating a comprehensive and convincing approach that allows for a rationalist and universalist Torah approach. Not every interpretation is unquestionable but the edifice Finkelstein has built is sufficiently strong to withstand minor critiques.

The RCCG claims to have churches in more than 100 countries, and Adeboye was named one of the world's 50 most influential people by Newsweek in 2008. His followers are said to number tens of millions in Africa, Europe and the USA, and he is sometimes referred to as "the African pope."